Drudgery Reduction Using Scientifically Designed Mango Harvesters Over Conventional Methods

Manual plucking of fruits is generally followed by Indian farmers. The tree branches are shaken to speed up the harvesting, which results in post harvest losses due to physical damage, stem end rot due to sap bleeding in mangoes due to absence of pedicel. Mango harvester is one which has conical shaped frame for easy pushing in to canopy, blade for shearing the pedicel, collecting net and a pole to avoid damage duei to dropping of fruits on the ground. The mango is held within the frame and the fruit is harvested by shearing action of blade. Harvesting efficiency of different harvesters were studied in comparision to hand plucking & tree shaking to reduce the drudgery due to fatigue on labour, to save time. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS) model was compared with that of Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore (IIHR) model. IIHR model is found to have higher efficiency as compared to the other models.